Press release

TripActions Launches ‘TripActions Liquid’ to Revolutionize Global Travel Payments

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Sponsored by Businesswire

TripActions®, the fastest-growing business travel platform, has raised a debt facility of up to $500 million to launch the industry’s first, end-to-end global corporate travel management and payments platform. TripActions Liquid™ solves the hassles of global travel payments to deliver a best-in-class experience for road warriors, finance leaders and travel managers alike. Led by Silicon Valley Bank with participation from Goldman Sachs and Comerica Bank, the financing enables TripActions to officially launch its second ground-breaking product. The launch follows positive feedback from finance and travel leaders using TripActions Liquid within some of the world’s leading public and private companies.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200225005391/en/

TripActions Liquid is the first-of-its-kind, end-to-end global corporate travel management + payments solution (Photo: TripActions)

TripActions Liquid is the first-of-its-kind, end-to-end global corporate travel management + payments solution (Photo: TripActions)

“TripActions is the only complete, end-to-end corporate travel management solution for finance teams and travel managers, combining the best online booking tool, travel management company and travel payments solution into a single platform,” said Samantha DeRosa, Senior Accounting Manager at Toast. “It’s a no-brainer to use TripActions Liquid with the TripActions corporate travel platform—it’s booking and payments integrated seamlessly to make travel spend management a breeze.”

Traveling employees win with TripActions Liquid as they no longer have to carry the cost of work travel on their personal credit cards, including the flight, hotel, incidentals, rideshares, dining and everything in between. What’s more, TripActions Liquid leverages partners like AppZen, the world’s leading AI solution for modern finance teams, to power real-time, AI-driven spend approvals within policy. This eliminates traveler angst and guesswork along with out-of-policy spend. And with the collaboration between TripActions and Visa, users can travel with confidence knowing TripActions Liquid corporate cards are accepted everywhere Visa is accepted across more than 46 million merchant locations in more than 200 countries and territories.

Finance leaders and travel managers win with TripActions Liquid as they can set smart policies to manage travel spend in real time. A seamless integration with the TripActions corporate travel platform ensures that TripActions Liquid knows when an employee is on a work trip and can be configured to auto-enable the traveler’s card for travel-related purchases. Additionally, time-consuming back-end work by finance is no longer required when bookings, payments and reconciliation are done within a single platform. And, TripActions offers a competitive rebate on all spend processed through TripActions Liquid, resulting in even more savings for organizations.

“Everyone who touches accounting knows that travel payment reconciliation is an issue, but it was always one of those ‘necessary evils’ you had to deal with,” said Vik Shah, Corporate Controller at Zoom. “I wasn’t surprised when TripActions came to me with a solution. What impressed me though, was how effective it is. TripActions Liquid is a major time saver—we’ve been able to reduce travel payment reconciliation time from weeks to minutes each month.”

Early users at Lyft, letgo, Toast, Zoom and other forward-thinking companies rave about TripActions Liquid, noting it delivers:

  • The first real-time, unified reporting of travel spend with travel bookings and payments centralized in a single platform to deliver a global view that empowers finance and travel leaders to unlock new insights to optimize spend.
  • Real-time control over travel payments with the ability to set policy controls to increase compliance and enable travel payment approvals in real-time when employees are booking travel or while on a work-related trip.
  • An even better traveler experience by giving employees the confidence that their company has their travel payments covered. With peace of mind, travelers can focus on being there, rather than getting there.
  • Automated reconciliation and reporting of travel payments across flights, hotels, trains, rental cars and other travel purchases gives finance and travel leaders time back to focus on higher value, strategic initiatives.

“Implementing TripActions Liquid took minutes and we’ve seen immediate improvements to our travel payments process,” said David Wieseneck, VP Finance at letgo. “With TripActions Liquid, we’re getting top reviews from travelers who appreciate the experience, as well as our finance team who love that reconciliation of travel payments now takes less than ten minutes.”

“Organizations have sacrificed for too long with inferior corporate travel management platforms—from clunky booking tools to poor service, out-of-control costs and complicated travel payments processes,” noted Ariel Cohen, Co-founder and CEO at TripActions. “Through our customers’ success, we’ve demonstrated that our state-of-the-art technology paired with our best-in-class travel agency service is the only choice in corporate travel management. That’s because TripActions is proven to deliver a great experience for business travelers while empowering their organizations to control costs and save money.

“Now, as part of our commitment to our users to improve their end-to-end travel experience, we’re revolutionizing travel payments to help enterprises further delight their employees while optimizing travel processes and spend,” added Cohen.

“Just as the corporate travel management sector has seen tremendous investment to drive innovation, travel payments is the next space that needs disruption,” said Kevin Permenter, Research Manager at IDC. “As a leader in the space, TripActions is well positioned, with the introduction of its enhanced payment capability, to take advantage of the huge market opportunity for travel payments. The product enhancement demonstrates that TripActions continues to work diligently to add more and more value to its users, customers, partners and the market as a whole.”

TripActions differs from legacy players by putting the business traveler first. Combined, TripActions and TripActions Liquid deliver consumer-like ease-of-use with powerful personalization, unrivaled inventory choice, 24/7 travel agents and streamlined travel payments that business travelers love. As a result, organizations achieve high adoption. That gives enterprise leaders the spend visibility, control and insights they need to optimize their travel, save money and fulfill duty of care. To learn more about TripActions, visit www.tripactions.com. To learn more about TripActions Liquid, visit https://tripactions.com/liquid.

Additional Quotes:

David Wieseneck, VP Finance, letgo

  • “Deciding to use TripActions Liquid for travel payments was a no-brainer for letgo. I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to use this. It’s more secure, it saves time, and makes our lives easier.”

Jasmine Pope, Procurement Travel and Expense Analyst, Lyft

  • “Where it used to take weeks with all the manual work required, travel payment reconciliation now takes under an hour each month with TripActions Liquid reducing our collective workload by more than 20%.”

Tu Nguyen, Accounts Payable Analyst, Zoom

  • “While nearly everything was self-service and easy to set up, I was really pleased at how this entire implementation went, as well as the ongoing support we’ve been receiving while rolling out TripActions Liquid. I feel like we’re really getting a white-glove experience and I appreciate that they treat us like a true partner.”
  • “Reconciliation now takes under an hour with TripActions Liquid, versus a month previously when we had to manually call hotels to verify data.”

Victoria Regan, Managing Director of Loan Syndications, Silicon Valley Bank

  • “SVB welcomed the opportunity to closely partner with the TripActions team to structure and provide a unique facility that can scale as TripActions Liquid grows. We are proud to build on our long-standing relationship with TripActions and serve as the Sole Lead Arranger and Administrative Agent.”

Ward Waltemath, Head of Global Enterprise Technology Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs

  • “Goldman Sachs is proud to be working with TripActions around this important product launch at an exciting moment in the company’s growth.”

Sunita Patel, President Technology and Life Sciences Division at Comerica Bank

  • “By helping businesses save considerable time and money, TripActions is poised for significant growth in the corporate travel space. We are pleased to partner with TripActions to provide financing that will enable them to scale rapidly as they deliver a high quality customer experience.”

Kevin Phalen, SVP, Global Head, Visa Business Solutions

  • “Visa is excited to support TripActions’ expansion into travel payments. There is a $20 trillion opportunity in commercial-card based payments, and the travel industry is one of Visa’s core focus areas for growth. With the power and global acceptance of Visa behind TripActions Liquid, business travelers can focus on where they’re going, rather than the process of getting there.”

About TripActions

We believe being there in person is powerful. It enables employees to build relationships, close deals, and drive growth. Fast becoming the default for corporate travel, TripActions combines the best corporate travel management tech with the best travel agency service. TripActions delivers consumer-like ease-of-use, powerful personalization, unrivaled inventory choice, 24/7 travel agents and streamlined travel payments that users love. As a result, organizations achieve high adoption, getting the spend visibility, data and insights needed to optimize their travel programs, save money, and fulfill duty of care.

Trusted by nearly 4,000 companies to manage nearly $2.5 billion in travel budget annually, TripActions reduces average booking time from 60 minutes down to less than six while achieving 90%+ traveler adoption, an unprecedented 93% traveler satisfaction, and up to 34% savings on lodging alone. Deliver a great travel experience for employees while controlling costs with TripActions.